Description
The role of British servicewomen during the Troubles in Northern Ireland is notably under-researched, even in comparison to recent scholarship on the role of women in paramilitary organisations (McEvoy, 2009, Alison, 2004, Ward, 2004, Dowler, 1998). This paper adds to the critical military scholarship on embodied experiences of war and the military body (Purnell, 2021, McSorley, 2015, Basham, 2013), by exploring how women’s bodies have been used as a tool for control by the British Army to sustain the negotiated gender order. By investigating the unique position of female covert operators and examining how their bodies were used, this research will be contributing to new understandings of military geographies and, in particular, how the difference between visible and invisible operations affected control over women’s bodies. This paper provides a much-needed contribution of previously unheard voices to both the history of the Troubles and to Northern Irish history, given new attention following the centenary of the Irish War of Independence (Kennedy, 2016, O Dochartaigh, 2016). Methodologically, this paper will contribute new creative approaches to engaging with the military community through their bodies and uniforms.
